Page 94 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

I've evidently made all things serviceable to my art. All my actions have but one
purpose: facilitating my work. And my urge to set to work and render expression to all
those things enchanting me never left me for even a single instant during those years.

- Jop Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing 1

The Belgian painter-traveller Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur depictions of the artist's immediate surroundings. These
de Merprès is one of the most celebrated 20th century included his residence on Sanur beach, the interior of his
artists who lived and painted in Bali, the mystical island house, the outdoor garden, and the lotus pond. Carefully
in the Indonesian archipelago that is dominantly Hindu in built and designed for the purposes of surrounding himself
a larger Islamic region. The outstanding natural beauty in beauty to continually inspire his work, Le Mayeur stated
and cultural richness of the island has attracted artists in a letter: "I've evidently made all things serviceable to
throughout the 20th century to paint its landscapes my art. All my actions have but one purpose: facilitating
and its peoples, and many artists have associated some my work. And my urge to set to work and render
of the most productive and enriching periods of their expression to all those things enchanting me never left
lives to the time they spent in Bali. Above all, Le Mayeur me for even a single instant during those years." (Jop
proved to be one of the island’s most famous foreign Ubbens and Cathinka Huizing, 1880-1958 Adrien-Jean Le
artists, having built his life and artistic career around Mayeur de Merprès: Painter-Traveller, Pictures Publishers,
the articulation of beauty in a tropical paradise. The Netherlands, 1995, p. 120). The lush, tropical backdrop
of his home served as the stage for Le Mayeur's dynamic
The pictorial themes Le Mayeur worked on in Bali and evocative portrayals of Ni Pollok – his exclusive
were mostly found in and around his the villa he built model, muse, and wife in his beloved Bali home.
for himself and his wife, Ni Pollok at the beachfront of
Sanur: women at leisure on a daybed in the interior of Le Mayeur was fascinated by the rich ritual culture of Bali,
the house; women weavers at the loom; women on the one he continuously captured in his paintings by depicting
veranda or women dancing on a terrace; women in front the graceful movements of the Legong dancers. When he
of the house or in the garden picking flowers or making engaged Ni Pollok to be his regular model for one rupiah
offerings. Amongst these themes, the last of them is a day, neither of them realised then that they had begun
one of the most iconic and enduring in his oeuvre. an everlasting and special relationship, first between artist
and model, and eventually as partners in life. Having made
This present lot is a wonderful example of one of the many countless studies of the Balinese beauty, the painter's
iconic works Le Mayeur painted in Bali, most of which were familiarity with her poise and form enabled him to build

Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur

De Merprès
勒 邁 耶‧德‧莫 赫 普 赫 斯

84 THE PIONEERS 先 鋒 薈 萃